Happy Holidays! I want to wish you and your
family happy holidays and best wishes for a wonderful new year. I
hope that you have health, happiness and a sense of joy during
this festive time of year.
In this last regular eNewsletter
of the year, I’d like update you on a few items and give you a
brief overview of all that took place during this super busy and
surprising year. But first, a few comments about current things
in the news:
The headline in
yesterday’s Union Tribune Sports Section “Hell Freezes
Over” reminded me of a photo a friend once sent me, I thought
appropriate to share here.
Congratulations to the San Diego Chargers for winning the AFC
West Championship yesterday – giving us in San Diego something to
really be proud of and cheer for given all the craziness and
insanity of the things going on down at City Hall.
The Chargers
became AFC Champions for the first time since 1994, reached the
playoffs for the first time since 1995 and are enjoying their
longest win streak of eight games running for the first time since
1961! In addition, with yesterday’s score, it was the first time
since 1993 they shut out an opponent. Naturally, they have a way
to go with some key games to win before we can say Super Bowl, but
it is nice to see the Chargers back where we like them.
Check out Jim Trotter’s article in the Union Tribune.
Pension and Disclosure Insanity at City Hall
I am still shaking my head in
disbelief after last week’s articles involving the San Diego
Retirement Board with their alleged scheme to have one of the
Board members Diane Shipione arrested if necessary.
While Ms. Shipione has
undoubtedly made many people on the pension board and the City
Council for that matter uncomfortable from time to time, with what
she has had to say, I must say I support her efforts in keeping us
informed. I realize her pronouncements may have led San Diego
into a very precarious situation with respect to our bond ratings
– but how much worse would it have gotten had we not been made
aware of things? How much longer would you and I have been patted
on the head and told everything was okay while errors and
omissions were either ignored or swept under the rug? I for one
applaud her for being vocal and keeping us informed – I only wish
we had listened more closely when she first started speaking out.
Apparently, the Board
contemplated arresting her if she interrupted a closed session
discussion that involved her alleged actions in talking about a
closed-door meeting of the Board. If she has in fact violated the
law in revealing closed session matters (which I rather doubt),
that is something that should be referred to the City Attorney,
the District Attorney and/or the Ethics Commission for a ruling –
not the San Diego Police Department.
I would certainly support the
City Council giving her a citizen watchdog award for her efforts.
It Only Seems To Get Wilder With
Every Passing Day
If folks have been following the
retirement/pension saga along with the disclosure practices issues
at San Diego City Hall, so far everything seems to be the makings
of a dramatic blockbuster movie – fiction no less – but what is so
crazy is that we are living this and so far the plot keeps getting
thicker with greater intrigue each day. Yesterday’s Union Tribune
reveals what I expected for some time, key officials have been
subpoenaed by the Security and Exchange Commission to learn more
from what they have already told Vinson and Elkins, the firm hired
by the City Council to help straighten all this out.
See the article by clicking on this link. We are meeting
today in a special City Council meeting to learn a little more of
what's been going on. It is my hope he public is allowed to hear
key details as well. You can bet I will insist on it.
At the center of all this are two
key issues: San Diego under-funded its pension for over 20 years
and until now, the City never really owned up to the reality of
the monumental and ever growing debt. Secondly, the disclosure
documents that are similar to the credit information you place on
a credit application were less than accurate, apparently leaving
out key pieces of information that Wall Street investors would
have wanted to know. There are other side stories as well, making
this issue a never-ending drama.
The Pension Saga
So where are we with all this?
In the retirement arena, the City Council’s Pension Reform
Commission made a comprehensive set of recommendations that for
the most part were adopted by the City Council this past fall.
You
can see the Pension Reform Commission's 281 page final report by
clicking on this link. The plan adopted by the Council has
the City among other things, fully paying its pension debt and
established an amortization schedule to pay back the deficit over
15 years. The Council also adopted a plan that would have the
City issue bonds to pay back the debt to the retirement system
more quickly.
Members of the Commission were
not always in complete unanimity on various matters so lingering
issues remain. The Chair of the former Pension Reform Commission,
April Boling, still has some concerns – having to due mainly with
additional retirement benefits granted to City employees in 2002.
Ms. Boling sent a letter two weeks ago setting the stage for a
possible law suit to overturn many of the retirement benefits
approved in 2002 by the Retirement Board. Her lawsuit, if filed
will allege wrongdoing under section 1090 of the Government Code.
Section 1090 has to do with conflict of interest issues (i.e.
members of the Retirement Board who are employees stood to gain
from their actions and therefore those actions should be
invalidated).
The Audit – When Will It Be
Completed?
The best analogy I can give folks
about the City’s bond rating and financial disclosure mess is
similar to someone not completely filling out a loan application
when applying for a loan. If the application is incomplete, the
bank may not give you the loan. The same is true for the City of
San Diego. Until the City can provide Wall Street with an audited
set of books – and in this case – the past two years’ worth (2002
and 2003), they aren’t getting any loans for important things like
water and sewer projects. In addition, the water and sewer bonds
are sure winners on Wall Street as those bonds are backed by the
revenues received from the water and sewer departments.
Nevertheless, it is as simple as that – until the City can
completely fill out the bond disclosures, there will be no new
monies for badly needed water and sewer replacement projects.
The audits are hung up as we
await the City’s audit firm, KPMG to complete their work. KPMG is
waiting for a greater degree of forensic research that the City
has authorized. Furthermore, KPMG would like the SEC (Securities
and Exchange Commission) to weigh in with anything good or bad
before they issue their audit – they certainly don’t want to issue
the City a clean audit if a government agency like the SEC through
additional investigation finds out something that KPMG missed.
For all I know, they may want the FBI to present details from
their investigation as well – makes sense to me. It’s a vicious
circle and one that won’t be concluded until every last detail is
researched and reviewed.
I’ll continue to update you on
things from my perspective – and as always, like hearing from
you. Please don’t hesitate to email me at jmadaffer@sandiego.gov
with any questions or comments.
A year – And My First Term – In
Review
I kicked off this latest
eNewsletter by saying what a busy year it has been. That it was
busy comes as no surprise. We had a very ambitious to do list and
to say that the compilation of projects was lengthy is an
understatement. What was unexpected was dealing with several
extraordinary issues – the ones that were and, as I mentioned
above, still are in the news.
When I first took office four
years ago, I never, ever could have imagined the events that have
transpired. The raid on City Hall, federal investigations, the
scale of our pension problems, the suspension of our credit
rating, gross mismanagement of departments, the passing of a dear
colleague and election results with no clear mandate. In
addition, most recently, knowing we’ll lose the valuable service
of our City Manager Lamont Ewell and the latest in the pension and
bond disclosure saga.
My Pledge to You
The 65th City Council
was sworn in on December 6 at a public ceremony in Golden Hall.
It was the inauguration ceremony for Councilmembers Peters,
Atkins, Maienschein and the new City Attorney Mike Aguirre as well
as me. My wife Sally and sons Christopher and Kyle joined me on
stage when Judge David Gill officiated and I took the oath of
office. It seems like yesterday that I was first elected and now
I’ve begun my second term in office. In my inauguration speech, I
made the following pledge to the people of San Diego and my City
Council district:
To the citizens of my district:
I thank you for re-electing me to represent Council District 7 of
the City of San Diego. You have my pledge of continuing as your
City Councilmember - on the job seven days a week from early to
late - to do everything I can to improve our neighborhoods and our
quality of life.
To the citizens of San Diego: I
will continue to guard and cherish our fine City for there is
still much to be done. I will work hard the next four years to
restore our City’s image and to restore the people’s faith in our
City.
Certainly, I’m realistic about
the sobering facts of serious troubles we’re facing but I’m
optimistic too. And I want you to be optimistic also. No doubt
about it we have to weather the rough patch we’re in. Let me
assure you that we are not without leadership and we’re not
without a plan in place. I am keenly aware of the issues before
us – from getting our City’s financial statements back on track to
restoring our bond ratings – all of these things are important for
our City to again move forward. And we will move forward. We’re
turning things around and putting safeguards in place so that we
don’t ever find ourselves in this position again. Just as we need
to get our financial house in order, we also need to find a way to
heal.
Nationally and locally, we saw
divisive elections and issues that polarized the population. We
cannot let that polarization continue here or we’ll never achieve
a single thing. It will be a continuous case of point –
counterpoint and never any progress. Our hope is for making this
a better City for our children and for that, we need everyone on
board.
I created a special year in
review version of my inauguration speech complete with photos -
you can read the entire text of my speech including photos by
clicking on this link here. (PDF- 1.4mb)
2004 In Review
Getting back to this year, I want
to thank you for your interest in all that we do. It was a year
of accomplishments. Just to briefly review it, let me take you
back to the beginning of 2004.
We began the year with a “Meet
the Chief Luncheon” in which District 7 residents had an
opportunity to know Police Chief William Lansdowne a little
better. He gave a great presentation in his warm and concise
manner. He definitely was a hit with all who attended and we
filled Nicolosi’s restaurant. We had more people than expected
and for a brief time wondered where would we seat everyone. But
not to worry. We squeezed them all in, the Chief met leaders in
our communities and everyone came away with a better understanding
of issues.
Speaking of
crowds, we had a great turn out the day we broke ground for the
new College-Rolando Library. Since then, construction is moving
rapidly and the new branch library on Montezuma Road will open its
doors sometime early next year.
We also broke
ground on new high-tech turf ball fields at Pershing Middle
School. It was a big to-do featuring San Diego Sockers star
Anthony Farace who grew up in the area. The joint-use project
with the San Diego Unified School District was completed on July
10th. Another memorable occasion was the day we tore down a
vacant gas station on El Cajon Boulevard that had been a major
eyesore for more than a decade. Hurray! We rushed and managed to
clean up the site in time for the annual Rolando Street Fair which
made everyone happy.
The
upcoming holiday time means more celebrations, more fun, more food
and more unwanted pounds from overindulging. Something else we
rarely think about is that it also means more trash. Did you know
that between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day the average household
will generate between 3 to 10 extra bags of garbage? While they
end up in the landfill, some of it could be recycled. Our City has
a strong track record of recycling but there is always room for
improvement. There are many food-packaging items that can be
recycled by placing them in your blue curbside recycling bin or at
recycling drop-off locations at City Recreations Centers. They
include:
